Kalikos Icebreaker

[Harrek]

I have a Valind hero as PC in my Pavis/Praxian campaign. Yes, it's a weird place for a Valind worshiper. Originally the character was transferred as a refugee from the previous campaign we had. He has already brought tougher winters in Pavis county. There are quite many who don't like this. This far the Valind PC and the other PC's have crushed all the resistance being maybe the best fighters in the area. The Valind PC has planned to bring a real winter in the area and there's going to be quite big players against this plot.

Therefore I would like to know more about Kalikos in general and the myth where he kicks Valind's ass in particular. I have the GtG (also KoS), and there is some information about this, as well as in the glorantha.wikia.com:

Foe of Winter.

• Associated with the North Star.
• Sent by Kargzant to defeat the Hollri with a fiery spear and red rock.
• He chased the Ice Palace into the Underworld and did a leaping dance of victory.
• He lived in the Palace of Kalikos.

Has somebody actually written the myth? What is the red rock carried on the Kalikos boat (GtG)? What are the mythical roles of the quest? He is associated with the North Star but his palace is in the Underworld? I don't quite understand this. Leaping dance of victory?

Who was Kalikos, a hero or a god?  What would be his runes? Fire rune obviously...but what else? 

[Noita]

Sounds like Lava.

[Joerg]

In that great picture on the inside cover of and the cardboard slipcase exterior for the Guide, we see a huge figure upholding the northern edge of the Sky Dome in an Atlas-like posture. This is part of the Umath myth where Umath smashed into the sky dome, sending it tumbling northwards after hit by Shargash, with Kalikos pushing the sky back up (Heortling Mythology p.28), so we have Kalikos here as the northern god bearing the sky dome, and ultimately the responsible force for spilling liquid blue fire into the Nargan Sea, sharing the blame with Jagrekriand (Tolat, Shargash, Vorthan) and Umath.

(I guess I'll have to edit this into the Wikia entry which focusses entirely on the Lendarshi myth, ignoring the Copper Tablets one.)

Balancing the fiery sky on his shoulders, Kalikos has the means to distribute heat in Glorantha.

It is possible that the Lunar Kalikos Quest interferes with the tilt of the Sky Dome, sending less heat to the distant south in the winters, reducing the fire spill there, and ultimately enabling the Chaos down south to grow. Sky seers might be able to measure this, but apart from those in Yuthuppa, the only other ones qualified to notice would be Brithini sorcerers in Sog City or the Palace of the Pentacle, or the Kralori star seers. We don't have any information whether they or the Buseri of Yuthuppa do measure some such effect.

I assumed that that red rock is a piece of the Red Moon.

 

The Char-un setting book Sons of Kargzant published by the Unspoke Word also focussed on Kalikos as a demigod hero of the Fire/Sky pantheon, a Star Captain ancestor.

I see this as a case of a single universal Godtime event being approached as different events in different ages. The Umath struggle is the cause for Kalikos pushing back the sky dome. The melting of the Glacier is the cause for reversing the northward tilt of the sky dome and the expansion of the winter realm.

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by Joerg
Added source: Char-un setting by Unspoken Word

[Harrek]

Ok. Was Kalikos a star captain before taking his place as a pillar god? He saved stars by taking his place and not allowing the Sky Dome "to hit the floor", right? What would be his powers as a pillar/fire god? I understood that the red rock was before lunars because:

• Sent by Kargzant to defeat the Hollri with a fiery spear and red roc

[Joerg]

13 minutes ago, Harrek said:

Ok. Was Kalikos a star captain before taking his place as a pillar god? He saved stars by taking his place and not allowing the Sky Dome "to hit the floor", right? What would be his powers as a pillar/fire god? I understood that the red rock was before lunars because:

• Sent by Kargzant to defeat the Hollri with a fiery spear and red roc

I was just about to edit my reply once more to address this.

If you look at the Ages of these myths, the dismemberment of Umath takes place in the late Golden Age or early Storm Age (marking the transition to the Age of Orlanth), while the Lendarshi myth is a survival myth from the Lesser Darkness or perhaps the Gray Age, generally considered to be "later" in Godtime.

Both myths are true. Both are about the same Kalikos, as the great illustration from the Guide shows - the dude approached by the Lunars is not the Star Captain who used the power of fire to melt off Valind, but the winter landscape is that of the Darkness myth.

We have a couple of myths that have a singular event in different Ages or subsections of Ages in Godtime, like e.g. the Taming or Slaying of the Water Serpent/Water Dragon that releases fertility-bringing water. See Vadrus vs. Enkoshons, Orlanth vs. Aroka, Murharzarm vs. Sshorga/Oslira or Barntar vs. Daga.

(For a real world example: Elias Lönnrott had different sets of actors on the Sampo Quest in the Kalevala, so he included a second Sampo quest to be able to tell the other story within a sequential narrative story. There really is only one Sampo Quest.)

In this case, we have two equally true causes of the northward tilt of the Sky Dome, and one entity named Kalikos credited to have dealt with it. Within time, the change of the tilt of the Sky Dome is a periodical event, and we can rationalize that this became a periodical event in God Time, too. But God Time is cyclical, and doesn't necessarily follow our needs for sequential events.

 

The Lunars have an unbeatable source for magical red rock that they can imbue with magics of their own. The questers have the task to confirm the identification of this red rock with the one Kalikos used in the Lendarshi myth. That myth remains silent about the origin of that red rock, allowing the Lunar variant of the quest the identification with a fragment of Verithurusa.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Joerg

[soltakss]

We have the Winterfall myth in my Praxian campaign, where the forces of Winter come down from the Rockwoods and face the Forces of Summer who oppose them every year. Normally, Valind, Gagarth and Inora are the prime movers for Winter, sometimes with Subere and Himile, the prime movers of Summer vary but Sun Hawk and Little Brother are normally involved. In our campaign, the orlanthi helped the side of Winter rather than Summer, to increase the Great Winter and to oppose the Lunar Kalikos HeroQuestors who tried to break the Winter in Prax.

I think that Kalikos was a Star Captain, one of the many that were sent to the surface world, but fought Valind to break the hold of the Ice Sheet that would otherwise have tipped the sky over. Later on, a Lunar HeroQuestor probably embodied Kalikos and awakened part of his soul, regaining the red Rock and stealing the Ice Crystal from Valind's Castle, forcing the followers of Valind to waste themselves in attacks on Kalikos' Castle.

[Harrek]

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

We have the Winterfall myth in my Praxian campaign, where the forces of Winter come down from the Rockwoods and face the Forces of Summer who oppose them every year. 

We have played this myth also as a mundane world heroquest. Maybe next year it will be a full scale heroquest with multiple players on each side and the forces of summer as a primus motor. 

[Ali the Helering]

This should link in to my version of the cult as followed in Pent.

 

 

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5894256923468520657#editor/target=post;postID=254074900217500149;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=27;src=postname

[Joerg]

18 minutes ago, Ali the Helering said:

This should link in to my version of the cult as followed in Pent.

Maybe - but it requires registration etc. to take a look.

[Ali the Helering]

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Maybe - but it requires registration etc. to take a look.

 

Aaah - how do I get around that without pasting the whole thing here?  Sometimes ignorance isn't bliss!

[soltakss]

5 hours ago, Joerg said:

Maybe - but it requires registration etc. to take a look.

Well, I can get through registration, but my account does not have permission to view the page. 

Is it a private page for a particular group?

[Ali the Helering]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Well, I can get through registration, but my account does not have permission to view the page. 

Is it a private page for a particular group?

Rather puzzled by this, since others don't seem to have had a problem  with the blog in the past.  I shall contact my tech advisor who set it up for me.

[David Scott]

13 minutes ago, Ali the Helering said:

Rather puzzled by this, since others don't seem to have had a problem  with the blog in the past.  I shall contact my tech advisor who set it up for me.

Me too, this might help :

Quote

Your current account (xxxxxxx@gmail.com) does not have access to view this page. 
Click here to logout and change accounts.

 

[Ali the Helering]

Hoping this might be more successful:

http://pentmaniac.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-cult-of-kalikos-icebreaker-as.html

If so, many thanks to Tindalos!

 

[Harrek]

Thanks for the cult description.

[David Scott]

Back in the 90s at the height of the weird idea that the Lunar Empire could be modelled on the Soviet Union (thankfully that time has passed) - I played in this - 

[soltakss]

I like the cult description, thanks.

[Ali the Helering]

You are most welcome.  As ever, it is but an interpretation, but one I thought particularly appropriate for Northern Pent.